Sinks are an essential work area in a kitchen, where a variety of food preparation occurs. For example, colanders are well known kitchen objects used over a sink, to prepare food items by rinsing them, to strain food items such pasta after boiling, etc., allowing the passage of liquids through holes or pores in the colander while retaining the food items within the colander. Additionally, bowls are often used to soak food items in water during preparation, such as soaking fruits and vegetables prior to cooking or eating raw, where the water in which the food items soaked is then poured down the sink drain. Also, cutting boards are often used in the area of a sink to permit the cutting of food items into smaller pieces before or after soaking them or rinsing them.
Because food preparation items are often used over sinks due to the use of water in many aspects of food preparation, items such as over sink colanders have been developed. These types of colanders generally include a frame about the colander portion where either the size of the frame in one direction is wide enough to span a sink or the frame has one or more extendable arms that can be pulled from the frame to span the sink. These over sink colanders provide for drainage of the colander without placing the colander on the sink bottom or over a second pot or container.
Although a colander has been included with a frame that includes a cutting board, the cutting board is formed as part of the frame for the colander. In this device, the cutting board blocks access to the sink in the area of the cutting board, so that use of the colander with cutting board is dedicated to the cutting and rinsing of food items or as a colander exclusively.
However, when preparing two different food items that need to be maintained separately, i.e., when straining pasta and simultaneously cleaning salad, a cook has had to finish one task before using the colander to perform the second task. Alternatively, a cook would need a second colander where the first over sink colander would have to be moved off of the sink for a second colander to be placed in the sink. Of course, the prospect of using multiple colanders in the area of the sink, a focal point in a working kitchen that is often quite crowded with dishes, pots and utensils, is not always acceptable for a busy cook.
Moreover, if a cook wished to conduct different food preparation aspects at the same time, different devices would be needed. For example, a bowl next to the sink would serve to hold food items after rinsing in a colander or to soak food items prior to rinsing in a colander, or a cutting board would be used on a counter and then moved over a colander to deposit the pieces into the colander for rinsing, etc.
Therefore, a more efficient over sink kitchen device that could serve multiple functions simultaneously in the area of a kitchen sink would provide a more efficient food preparation experience and would advance the art.